First Day of School for Princess Amalia: December 10, 2007

[Vanesa]

Thank you, Lucien. Your explanation is very clear. I can't wait to see Princess Amalia with her uniform. I'm always wanting pics and more pics of her...

Vanesa.

 

[lucien]

Thank you Lucien. Your explanation is very clear. Do teachers move students up into a higher level class if they feel they have the maturity and ability to do higher level work?

Yes,but only after consulting the parents and the student ofcourse.Some pushy parents might say yes beforehand hoping their kid will turn into another Einstein,but really it all boils down to what the student wants/wishes in such a case.At least in the case I'm most familiar with.

 

[prinsesbeagle]

Dutch kids don't wear school-uniforms, Vanesa.

 

[acdc1]

Somehow, I can see Amalia as the type of child who loves going to school, not only for the learning but for the socializing. I wonder if she'll turn out that way as she gets older.

 

[Aurora810]

I have a question maybe a fellow Dutch poster can answer for me. Amalia will start school in December and I assume she will attend the rest of the school year which likely goes until summer '08. Then next August/September what level will she be at? I'm confused with the concept of kids coming in at different times of the school year and some kids being promoted to a next level during the school year. Is there some point when kids start school in August/September and they are with the same group of kids for the entire school year? Hope I'm making myself clear enough.

 

[Regina]

Somehow, I can see Amalia as the type of child who loves going to school, not only for the learning but for the socializing.

Yes, I don't think Amalia will cry on her first day of school. From the pictures I have seen she seems to be an extrovert and very kind child, who likes to laugh and have fun. She will make friends easily, I believe.

 

[ashelen]

I am really surprise that Amalia goes to a public school, knowing Maxima grow up in a private school,it must be a school with all parents with money and the same social level.
I live in Las Vegas, here not even crazy you can think to take your kids to public school, the level of education is so terrible, but it is a really sucrifice to send the kids to private school is so expensive, that you don't know how you will do to pay the next year!

 

[prinsesbeagle]

school

The school will mostly have kids from the town itself. It's a wealthy town, but not all kids there will be from rich parents. And the parents of kids going to kindergarten won't pay much money for the school (perhaps at most a few hundred, but usually it's less). Most of the costs - including books and other materials etc - are paid for by the state. Also - except perhaps for the really big cities - there is no real difference between the quality of public schools or 'private' schools (they're not really private, they're just based on a religeous base)

A US photoagency had some pictures a few days ago of Maxima picking up Amalia from her new school (I guess some paparazzi are still trying to sell their pics which would clearly fall under the mediacode). So the school wont be new to her on her first 'official' day of school next monday.

 

[Regina]

I read there are Public, Special and Private schools in the Netherlands.Special schools are the ones based on a specific religion. Since Amalia is the future Queen, why didn't Máxima and Williem choose a lutheran school for their daughter?

 

[Aurora810]

I read there are Public, Special and Private schools in the Netherlands.Special schools are the ones based on a specific religion. Since Amalia is the future Queen, why didn't Máxima and Williem choose a lutheran school for their daughter?

This is strictly my opinion maybe others can weigh in on your question. I think the focus is perhaps on exposure to different types of people yet still in a safe upper class type of an environment.

 

[ashelen]

you might be right, but growing up in Argentina in a private school like she sis I want my daugher in a private school, so I wassurprise Maxima did not choose a private school, may be che can not have an opinion to this?????she has to do what her husband id?

 

[Marengo]

Well, there aren´t that many private schools around here in the Netherlands, to put your child on one of these schools would probably be judged as extreme snobism.

I think it is customary to send a child to school after they became 4. You usually start in group 1, and go to group 2 but the kids who get´in a class halfway, like Amalia now will finish what is left of group 1 this schoolyear and start in group 1 after the summer too. So Amalia will probably be 2 1/2 years in ´kleuterschool´.

 

[prinsesbeagle]

agree

Agree with Marengo: sending her to one of the very very few private schools would have been seens as snobbish. Only a very small few percent of the kids here go to private schools and esp at such a young age there is no need for private schools.

As for not chosing a 'lutheran' school, I am sure that also has to do with wanting her to have an upbringing where she will be in touch with a broad variety of people. It could have offended many people to send her to a 'lutheran' school (or any other 'religeous' based school).

 

[Marengo]

Well, they are not lutherans of course, but Dutch Reformed. I think most public schools are of some religion (most of them Dutch Reformed, Reformed or Catholic). I believe Willem-Alexander and his brothers went to a school without a religious background too. Note that these kind of schools usually have religious lessons too, explaining what religions are around etc.

 

[zembla]

Schools start here in august/september too,depending on the part of the country you live in as holidays have been divided in North,Middle and South with a difference of 1 to two weeks,to avoid traffic jams and such if all would go at the same time.

But,like in Amalia's case,as soon as children reach the age of four,regardless the time of year,they start attending in what we call here group 1,a mixture of kindergarten and elimentary education.Hope the explanation is clear enough?

That's interesting...I know in America if your birthdate is after a certain deadline you have to wait a year before entering the first wave of schooling.

 

[ashelen]

i can understand your point of view, specially if you have such a good public schools in Holland, why to send it to private?
in Argentina like in the US is better to go to private school, is where you can have a good education,it is not a matter of snobism, it is a matter to learn and be educated

 

[zembla]

i can understand your point of view, specially if you have such a good public schools in Holland, why to send it to private?
in Argentina like in the US is better to go to private school, is where you can have a good education,it is not a matter of snobism, it is a matter to learn and be educated

That's true...it's unfortunate that the best public "free" schools only exist int he best communities but most of those children attend private.

 

[ashelen]

Yes, It Is Unfortunaltelly And Sad Because You Want The Best Education For Your Kids But Sometimes It Is Impossible To Afford, It Is So Expensive!!!!! And It Is Not Only This About Payingthe Tuttuion, They Want Donations, And Heavy Donations!

 

[poppy7]

On the schools front in the UK and Ireland, you go to school at 5. When I was a child it was 4, but for some unknown reason (it isn't law) it kind of transgressed to being around 5 (at least where I live). You generally go to 'play school' for a few mornings, each week though from the age of 2. I don't know if Kindergarden is the same, it is always such an American concept here, even though it obviously derives from Germany. In Ireland you got to secondary school at 12, in the UK at 11. In the UK, your general education finishes at 16, and you then either leave school, or go on to college/sixth form and do you’re A levels (3 or 4 subjects). At 18 (or 19 if you take a gap year), if you did your A levels, you go to University, which lasts 3 years. In Ireland you can leave school at 16, but your general education isn’t completed until you’re eighteen.

As for Amalia and her bodyguards. My brother went to school, for a few years, with the son of an ambassador, and he had a bodyguard (the ambassador represented a volatile country, but I can't remember where right now). Apparently no one knew the bodyguard was really there (he never was in the classroom). The biggest deal was the ‘official car’ that used to pick the son up. The other children in the class, absolutely loved getting invited back to the son's house, because they got to ride in his car (shallow, but hey that’s kids.).

I don’t know what the security is like, in general, for the DRF, but I am sure her bodyguards will probably just patrol the grounds of her school etc,

 

[ashelen]

YES, i AM SURE SHE WILL HAVE BODYGUARDS, ALL DAY IN THE SCHOOL. AND I DO NOT THINK IT WILL BE DIFFICULT FOR HER TO ADJUST TO SCHOOL , HER PARENTS TRAVEL A LOT AND THEY PROBABLY STAY AT HOME WITH BABYSITTERS, SO THEY USE TO BE FOR SOME DAYS WITHOUT MUMMY AND DADDY. PROBABLY THE FIRST COUPLE OF TIMES THEY WILL GO WITH HER PARENTS, BUT PROBABLY AFTER IT WILL BE TH E BODYGUARDS AND BEBYSITTERS!

 

[poppy7]

Amalia, and her sisters, have a nanny (and maybe more than one), who more than likely lives with them. There is really no other way that her parents could carry out their official engagements without one. I am sure they don't spend all day with them though.

 

[ashelen]

yes, i agree with you and knowing the way of thinking in Argentina , I am sure it had to be diffiuclt for Maxima to get use to live her daughters with the nanny /s but like you said not other way with their schedule of work! and i am sure when they arrive home they give them plenty time to the girls, they do not have the worries about to do the things of the house, cooking, cleanning, ironing, etc... so they can dedicate to their girls plenty time, good qulity time, i am sure she is a great mother!

 

[TLLK]

On the schools front in the UK and Ireland, you go to school at 5. When I was a child it was 4, but for some unknown reason (it isn't law) it kind of transgressed to being around 5 (at least where I live). You generally go to 'play school' for a few mornings, each week though from the age of 2. I don't know if Kindergarden is the same, it is always such an American concept here, even though it obviously derives from Germany. In Ireland you got to secondary school at 12, in the UK at 11. In the UK, your general education finishes at 16, and you then either leave school, or go on to college/sixth form and do you’re A levels (3 or 4 subjects). At 18 (or 19 if you take a gap year), if you did your A levels, you go to University, which lasts 3 years. In Ireland you can leave school at 16, but your general education isn’t completed until you’re eighteen.

As for Amalia and her bodyguards. My brother went to school, for a few years, with the son of an ambassador, and he had a bodyguard (the ambassador represented a volatile country, but I can't remember where right now). Apparently no one knew the bodyguard was really there (he never was in the classroom). The biggest deal was the ‘official car’ that used to pick the son up. The other children in the class, absolutely loved getting invited back to the son's house, because they got to ride in his car (shallow, but hey that’s kids.).

I don’t know what the security is like, in general, for the DRF, but I am sure her bodyguards will probably just patrol the grounds of her school etc,

I wouldn't be surprised if the school has undergone some hidden prepartions for her arrival. Perhaps the room has a way to quietly alert security if there is an issue. I'm sure that the principal and staff have been briefed on what to do should a security concern arise.

 

[DUCHESSSA]

Hi

<in Argentina like in the US is better to go to private school, .>

Ashleen,

I am a product of the Argentina's public education (grammar, HS...5 years of the Dental college)....and I will not change the knowledge I received for any provided -at that time- by the private schools.
I remember my years in college in New York and I laugh at "how
easy those years were."
In the 50s, 60s and 70s, the Argentinean public education was fantastic; unfortunately, it has changed.
I believe Maxima Zorriegueta is a product - at least at the university level - of the public education.

Duchesssa

 

[princess olga]

Amalia's dad, alexander, when he was a kid, went to the Nieuwe Baarnse School, a non-religious public school in Baarn. Definitely, definitely a rich kid school, but that had more to do with the location than anything else probably. Baarn is a town in one of the most affluent parts of the Netherlands, het Gooi. And Beatrix and her family lived there at the time, in her gorgeous tiny castle named Drakensteyn.

I had a friend at the time who went to school with Beatrix's sons, and she said that the body guards used to sit all day in their cars while the princes were in class, but wouldn't go into the building. Wonder how that will work with Amalia, probably something similar.

 

[DUCHESSSA]

Hi

in the publicschool you were missing too many days of school because of teacher's strike!

While in grammar / HS...Máxima attended the Northlands School.



Duchesssa

 

[carlota]

i thought amalia started school much earlier (?) in fact, i think there were pictures of the school she attends. perhaps this is the first "official" day?

can't wait for pictures!

 

[Jo of Palatine]

It differs extremely indeed.The eldest children of my brother,12 and 11 respectively,are in 3rd grade and 2nd grade gymnasium in München,the youngest,9,skipped a class and will follow next year.Here in The Netherlands that wouldn't be the case untill the 12th year of age.I think even within germany rules are different,and Bavaria stands out as having a very strict and extraordinary high level of education,would be dubbed "oldfashioned and too strict" here,but it does work wonders for the children and their future chances,imho.

If you yourself have a higher education level and your kids are healthy, then it's okay in Bavaria. But if you have a traumatised child then the problems start and your kid may very fast end up on the lowest end of education. Am myself a mum in Bavaria...

 

[Jo of Palatine]

I also find it very interesting that Amalia is going to attend a public school, and not some posh-exclusive school. But I am wondering how the relationship between the little Princess and her schoolmates could develop.

Just wanted to add that Wassenaar is one of the poshest "villages" in the Netherlands, where "normal" people can't afford to live. Thus, even the village school is much more posh than others...

 

[Verde Esmeralda]

I believe Maxima Zorriegueta is a product - at least at the university level - of the public education.

Duchesssa

Not really, Duchessa. Máxima attended Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA) for her education in Economics. The UCA is private, and nowadays not really the cheapest among them